Doing the laundry this morning, I thought back about all the different places I had done the wash and all the different machines and lack thereof that I had used. I will start this wash day series with a poem about my neighborhood. When we first moved in, my next door neighbor actually said the quote that starts this poem.
Reading the Lines
“I can’t believe you pay to dry them. The sun is free.”
Pampers won out so
Diapers no longer announce new births.
But the lines still tell stories.
Flannel pajamas reveal a marriage chill.
Khakis replace work overalls.
Lacy bras give way to sturdier support.
Men’s clothes suddenly disappear.
Make of it what you will–
Here we still value thrift over privacy.
We now have a line out on our back porch/deck to get all that free sun here in hippieland, and I think people can indeed tell a lot by what goes out there and what doesn’t–
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I came from a neighborhood where hanging the wash out was “low class.” It took me a while to get used to seeing all that underwear blowing in the wind!
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We used to do it in New Jersey, where I grew up. It wasn’t a wealthy area, more working-class, and generally acxcepted as practical in the 1960 and onward. There are places now in the US anyhow where it is banned as unsightly, mostly condominium communities. I think opinion is still divided here anyhow if it is practical and rural-charming or low-class, but since no one can really see it anyhow except folks living over the hill a bit, or at least through trees, we are happy to do it.
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I think its like chickens. Now they are ok in upscale neighborhoods, but not in older working class neighborhoods where they were considered low class.
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I think it’s a bad idea for anyone other than in rural places to have chickens, usually, since they seem not to get the care needed and they make such a poopmess that it can stink up things,a nd there can be noise. People sometimes don’t think it through, and then the poor creatures suffer unnecessarily. People are dopes sometimes, I think!
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Well I think people are getting pretty sentimental about chickens. But I always ask them what are they going to do when they stop laying.
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Yeah. it’s a whole life cycle. I’m vegetarian so am not personally prepared to just kill some birds from the backyard when they stop being convenient, but a lot of folks don’t think it through.
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My good friend just let them die naturally.
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I use the washing machine for washing and spinning then dry them under the sun in a clothes line. They smell even fresher that way.
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I love the smell of outdoors clothes too.
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I’ve often thought of setting up a clothesline in my back yard. Now I’m inspired!
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There are a lot of them here.
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A lot of truth (for better or worse) in your insightful poem. I liked it.
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Thank you. It was fun to write.
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This is so interesting, Elizabeth. YOu are quite right, the washing on the line tells a lot about the inhabitants of the house.
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Funny that so many don’t mind “airing their laundry.”
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Boy does this bring back memories! Your poem says it all, so well, so briefly and so poignantly.
When I was growing up, and later, when I was lucky enough to have a yard with a clothes line, there were always four lines strung parallel between the poles. Mom taught me to fill the two outer lines first, with bed and kitchen linens, jeans and shirts. Then, with the damp clothes slapping our back and face, we’d hang our “unmentionables,” rags bleach couldn’t clean but still too useful to discard, and anything else we might not want the neighbors to chat about on the party line. : )
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Good to hear from you. I look forward to new posts from your neck of the woods. I am tickled by the way your mother combined frugality with privacy.
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Thank you. I’ve had a few challenges to writing, but am slowly getting back to it now, my mind fairly bursting with the need. I’m sure you know how that goes.
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Well, I say just go ahead and post. Who knew laundry would interest so many people?
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When I purchased my house I had a clothes line in my backyard. A lot of people dried their sheets, towels, and more. It doesn’t seem popular any more. I kind of miss that sun dried smell and less expensive Electric bill from my dryer 😏
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They do smell good in the air, but the towels were always a little scratchy.
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